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A laboratory for performative interventions at the intersection of drag and bouffon - where boundary pushing cabaret meets radical immersive satirical clown. In this four day workshop, shapeshifters, pedagogues and performers Nancy Nutter and Michelle Madsen will open the can on what it is to distort the norm and to explore and create performance from subversive perspectives and for subversive means.
The sessions will touch on the body as an agent of disruption, the creation of characters and alter egos, the disruption of space, society and the city and the decolonisation of satire.
The workshop will take place at Spreefeld studios in Kreuzberg and in the city on:
Wed Nov 13: 11am-4pm
Thu Nov 14: 11am -5pm
Fri Nov 15: 11am -5pm
Sat Nov 16: 2pm-6pm
Fee: Eur250 (low income) Eur300 (high income) sliding scale.
Please send a short email expressing your interest to [email protected].
We welcome applications from all bodies and all levels of experience in drag and performance. We encourage those who are curious but have no idea what drag or bouffon are about to come along and see what happens.
The price of the workshop represents payment for the space and the facilitators time and we are offering 3 full (free) bursary places for people who would like to take part but whose current/historical social/financial situation means that they would be unable to attend without this support.
Please write short paragraph explaining your need of a bursary place when you email your application. The deadline for bursary applications is November 7th. We offer a sliding scale of prices from support to solidarity for low- high income participants. If you do not feel that your need is enough for a bursary place but would not be able to attend at the fee levels above, please get in contact - we can have a chat.
FACILITATOR BIOGS:
Michelle Madsen
Michelle is an Argentinian/Danish British-born multidisciplinary artist. She makes performative installations and happenings which use sound, movement and ritual to queer dominant narratives. She is co-director of the award-winning theatre company Bait (Cronivision, K*ll The Princess, Desperately Seeking Circe) and her poetry has been performed and published internationally (Alternative Beach Sports, Burning Eye, La Ninfa Eco). Michelle is the host of Bears at a Picnic Naked and Laughing (Resonance FM). Her recent work has been performed at Odin Teatret, Denmark (Off With Her Head) and as part of Berlin’s 2021/22 Performing Arts Festivals (Bar Was Immer, Artwat) She has collaborated with artists including Kate Tempest, Salena Godden and Marianne Costa and her journalistic work has been broadcast on the BBC (My Fake News WhoDunnit). She is a Visiting Lecturer at City University and is exploring collaborative and disruptive practices as a member of the Make-Up artist collective in Berlin. She holds an MA-certificate in Integral Movement and Performance Practice at the Thomas Prattki Center (Lispa/Arthaus Berlin), where she has taught since 2020 as part of the core teaching team.
Nancy Nutter
The shape-shifter of Berlin. The artist formerly known as Camp Dad, known formally as Shirley Knott. Along with a pantheon of alter egos and other frogs in the box. You can't burn a witch if she's already on fire.
Nancy, non binary femme from the north of England, has been performing in Berlin's alternative cabarets and queer clubs since 2018. She was one of the Venus Boys, the mind behind the Tranarchy club nights, co-artistic director of go drag! 2022 Festival, and curator of the immersive performance programme at Whole festival. She is a singer, a makeup artist, costume maker, and a fool. Nancy is one of the core teachers for König, focusing on character building, improvisation, and stage presence. She has for the last two years taught at Arthaus as a guest lecturer in the Cabaret Noir and Bouffon module, focusing on gender performance and DRAG. Nancy is a regular performer at Lunchbox Candy, and has performed at Gegen, Buttons, Pornceptual, Sissy Smut, Homoblock. She collaborates with Madame Eve as Shirley Knott for musical double act ‘The Dames’, and together with Bleach for ‘The Camp Dad and Bleach Show.’
FURTHER WORKSHOP INFO:
So what happens in a drag and bouffon workshop... a few tasters...
The workshop will include sessions on:
Subversion, distortion of normativity. Queering, querying,
Masculine and Feminine performativity exploration- King and Queen- channelling
Crown and Root performativity exploration- sub/beyond human
Character development improvisation- alter ego. Blind date.
‘Wrecking’ exploration. Tunte
‘Passing’ explorations
Embodied exploration of ‘the wound that creates’
Bouffons and ‘punching up’ - mockery and power
Exaggeration and amplification
We will go on deep dives into:
Normativity - Understanding of the gender binary. Exploring masculine and feminine gender performativity. Intentionality of being. Conscious character building. The body as material - transformation of states.
Desire - the disrupted body - exploring from the inside and the outside/building the bouffon body. Changing the body through embodiment and costume. Exploration of desire and feeling -where do desires sit in the body and how do we interact with them. Decivilising the body. Gender euphoria - an indicator of where your identity desire sits.
Externalising Desire - desire into action, the politics of performativity and performative politics - satire and subversion, construction and writing. Alter ego and the doppelganger.
The Body as an Agent of Disruption - from action to interaction - risk, enacting change, context, methods, constellation of the artist in relation to the action. Manifestation - stage as ritual space. Public interventions.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Spreefeld Genossenschaft, Wilhelmine-Gemberg-Weg 12, 10179 Berlin, Deutschland,Berlin, Germany
